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Railroad crossing repairs to begin in Dover

Get ready for more traffic runarounds in Dover as the New Jersey Department of Transportation announces a railroad-crossing rehabilitation project that will require a closure and detour on Orchard Street.

Railroad crossing repairs to begin in Dover

Detours will affect traffic on Orchard Street

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The Prospect Street Bridge, shown here in January, was closed last year for an NJDOT replacement project. That project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year while another railroad crossing project one block away at Orchard Street will tie up more traffic from Wednesday to Oct. 2.(Photo: William Westhoven/Staff Photo)Buy Photo

Get ready for more traffic runarounds in Dover as the New Jersey Department of Transportation announces a railroad-crossing rehabilitation project that will require a closure and detour on Orchard Street.

Orchard Street is scheduled to be closed to traffic in both directions at the NJ Transit railroad grade crossing near the intersection of Dickerson Street from 7 a.m. Wednesday until 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2.

Traffic will be detoured using Second Street (Chestnut Street), Byram Avenue, South Morris Street and Dickerson Street. The detour will be coordinated with the borough police, according to NJDOT. If work is completed earlier, the roadway will be reopened.

The new closure is located about one block to the east of another railroad-related closure on Prospect Street. NJDOT closed the structurally deficient Prospect Street Bridge over the same NJ Transit line on Nov. 25 and in January approved a $4.8 million bridge-replacement project there.

The Prospect Street Bridge project began in May and the department hopes to complete the job by the end of the year. Original estimates called for completion by spring 2016.

The new Orchard Street crossing project, which does not involve a bridge, will include replacement of the existing crossing with a new concrete crossing and new asphalt approaches that DOT officials say will be "safer and smoother." The project is included within NJDOT’s railroad grade-crossing safety program that repairs, upgrades or removes approximately 30 crossings each year statewide.

Weather may affect the completion time of the project. Motorists can visit NJDOT’s traffic-information website www.511nj.org for construction updates and real-time travel information.